The present invention relates to banking services and more particularly to a system and method which provides virtually immediate, on-going interaction between a banking institution and its customers.
Decades ago, financial institutions had the capability of offering service that could be tailored almost down to the single customer. For example: The Bank of Smalltown receives through deposit or clearing, a check on the account of valued customer Jones. The check will cause the customer""s account to go into overdraft. The Bank reaches Jones by phone and advises him of the situation. Jones promises to come to the Bank that day with a cash deposit sufficient to cover the overdraft. At three o""clock, closing time for the Bank, Jones has not arrived. The branch manager, Smith, knows that Jones will honor his promise and assumes he must have been delayed. He also knows that Jones will suffer if the check is returned (i.e. returned to the bank of first deposit or to the local depositorxe2x80x94colloquially, the check will bounce). Smith keeps Jones"" account open. Jones arrives at 3:30 p.m. and apologizes through the locked door to Smith. Smith takes Jones"" money through the slot in the Bank""s door and records the deposit. Service on a personal level such as described above, is largely a thing of the past.
Today, customers have three possible ways to receive information from their financial service institution. First, a customer can receive paper and/or microform records shipped to them on a prearranged schedule. Second, the customer can subscribe to an online service that allows the customer to pull down information from online databases that are updated on a fixed schedule. In the case of a corporate customer, the service is called, for example, an xe2x80x9conline cash management systemxe2x80x9d, while in the case of an individual customer, the online system is usually called a xe2x80x9chome banking systemxe2x80x9d. Typically, both of the above systems operate on intraday or intramonth batching schedules. These systems interleave exceptional information with everyday reporting, are cumbersome when there is a large amount of data, are labor intensive, and are prone to delays and missed opportunities unless managed with close precision by the customer. In essence, the customer gets the information the bank makes available on the bank""s schedule.
In a third method of communication, the bank makes known to its clients information relevant to their accounts on an account by account basis via telephone. The contact by phone is labor intensive, and is therefore selectively used. It is also not reliable since the recipient may not be near the phone and a message recording device may not be activated.
Reasons for the unavailability, expense or ineffectiveness of such personal services include the volume of transactions passing through the financial networks, the number of businesses and persons having one or more accounts, the inability to precisely pinpoint the exact time when a service or special attention will be needed by a customer and finally, the inability to reliably communicate bi-directionally between the customers and the financial service institution at the point when knowledge of the information is critical.
This last point is especially true in the case of retail customers, individuals, regarding the reliable delivery of confirmations of receipt of instructions and confirmation of executed transactions.
The present invention addresses the aforementioned drawbacks of the prior art in the form of a new system and service which establishes a new paradigm in the delivery of financial banking services. This new paradigm is referred to herein as xe2x80x9cPush Bankingxe2x80x9d. The terminology xe2x80x9cPush Bankingxe2x80x9d is inspired, in part, by the evolution of the concept of xe2x80x9cPush Technologyxe2x80x9d on the Internet.
Push Technology, as implemented to date, is an attempt to address the growing problem of the enormous amount of available information on the Internet. Existing search engine technology is inadequate to get reliable access to certain pieces of information. Such searches return thousands or tens of thousands of xe2x80x9chitsxe2x80x9d which must be searched with ever increasing ingenuity on the part of the operator. Even so, the final results of the automated search must usually be reviewed by the searcher to find the required information, if it can be found at all. xe2x80x9cPushxe2x80x9d in this context means that the information is sent to the operator by the system. xe2x80x9cPullxe2x80x9d refers to the original search engine model where the operator requests the information from the system.
It appears that in all cases of Push Technology there exists an implicit profile of the information the operator desires to receive (usually established by the operator before the initiation of push services). In most cases there is an active application on the operator""s workstation which xe2x80x9cpollsxe2x80x9d a server on a periodic basis and downloads the information to the operator""s terminal and displays it. In this case, it appears to the operator that the information is being xe2x80x9cpushedxe2x80x9d to him. More correctly, however, the operator has installed an application that does periodic customized searches (i.e. xe2x80x9cpullsxe2x80x9d) and then displays the results of the search. In at least one case, a Push Technology (from a company Backweb(trademark) is used to do automatic software upgrades.
The terms xe2x80x9cWebcastingxe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9cNetcastingxe2x80x9d are also sometimes used interchangeably with xe2x80x9cPush.xe2x80x9d Indeed the radio or television broadcast is an archetype of the xe2x80x9cPushxe2x80x9d concept. In xe2x80x9cWeb/Netcastingxe2x80x9d there is usually some sense of a filtered or customized broadcast (e.g. as described by a company POINTCAST(trademark) under the term PERSONALCAST(trademark) ). This implies a large common pool of broadcast information which is limited or filtered in some way to suit an individual operator. However, none of the prior art implements or teaches a pure Push Banking process as contained in the present invention which is driven by data of essential concern to a customer and facilitates immediate response from the customer via two way acknowledgment interaction.
Accordingly, the present invention is a software/hardware system which provides increased diversity in the delivery of banking services. The system provides virtually immediate, on-going interaction between a banking institution and its customers and delivers to banking customers the information the customers need, at the moment it is available, at the customer""s convenience.
The present invention is software driven system which is capable of reaching customers/subscribers over numerous, different communication channels and actively screens market conditions for situations that could potentially impact its customers, based on the customers"" unique financial situation and prearranged instructions.
The present invention overcomes the limitations of the prior art by providing a comprehensive, fast, reliable, less expensive notification process for banks or other institutions with which to communicate relevant information to clients via messages that represent the considered whole of all the information at the time of transmission. The information can include a information about a customer""s accounts and personal information of high importance to clients in a reliable and timely manner.
The drawbacks of the prior art have been ameliorated and the above and other objects of the invention have been realized in the form described below, by the instant inventors who have worked under the auspices of the assignee of the present invention, The Chase Manhattan Bank (xe2x80x9cChasexe2x80x9d).
As a financial services entity, any bank has access to certain customers"" financial information sooner than the customers. Additionally, if customers had earlier access to some of their account information based on prearranged screening (e.g. performed by Artificial Intelligence (AI) or other process) of the customers"" situations vis-à-vis some emerging situational information, the customers could take immediate action in order to correct adverse financial impacts or to otherwise take advantage of the information. The entirety of the invention does not rest with the earlier correction of financial issues, but rather relates to the timely provision of financial information to a customer which enables the customer to take the earlier action.
The services realized by the present invention range from on-demand payment services to presenting critical information on a timely basis. The present invention, referred to herein as Push Banking, is designed to automatically send information to the customer, with the means for the customer to make the appropriate response on which the Bank can then act. In contrast, in today""s environment, a customer must affirmatively seek the information and then respond accordingly. For example, suppose a customer has exceeded the credit-line on his credit card and has the funds in his checking account to pay off the credit card. In the prior art system of notification to the customer, the customer""s response to the bank to use funds from the checking account will typically arrive too late. In contrast, the Push Banking system of the present invention alerts the customer of the over-limit condition immediately and allows the customer to pay the credit card overdraft immediately from the checking account, or stop payment in the event of fraud.
The present invention also provides substantial business processing benefits. Today, a bank""s financial data must be processed twice, seriallyxe2x80x94once in order for it to be outputted by the Bank to the customer and again for it to be inputted, analyzed and acted upon by the customer. The Push Banking system of the present invention reduces the frequency and amount of manually initiated double processing of information. This reduction in labor and inefficiency has also the unanticipated and beneficial effect of allowing the timexe2x80x94between the creation or receipt of a significant piece of information by the bank, its transmission to the customer and the receipt of any needed response from the customerxe2x80x94to collapse to the minimum time possible relative to communication technology and the customer""s ability to receive a transmission via at least one of many possible means.
The present invention is a new paradigm in bank service. It represents a new offering that responds to the scarcest commodity of allxe2x80x94time. It anticipates the need for customers to react to information independent of time zones restrictions. This new paradigm changes the time dimension as well as the content dimension of the information delivered by any banking or financial institution to its customers. The present invention is not Push Technology and it is not simply using Push technology to deliver information.
An integral part of the system and method of the invention that implements the aforementioned service is referred to herein as the Push Active Filter (PAF). The Push Active Filter interacts with the bank""s processing centers which handle incoming customer transactions and creates outgoing transactions. The Push Active Filter also interacts with various data banks containing customer account information, transaction histories, current transaction activity, and derived analytical/statistical data as well as external sources of information such as the Internet.
The Push Active Filter employs artificial intelligence and other analytical tools as well as customer specific profiles to make the decision in each case as to which information to push to the customer. Information is pushed automatically, on a virtually instantaneous basis, as soon as the information becomes available so that customers may act on it relatively immediately.
The Push Active Filter is a software/hardware construct that is responsible for selecting and conveying the information to the customer, based on knowledge of the type of tools that are available (or unavailable) at the customers"" site. This allows the invention to deliver information to the customer via any communication means presently known, or that might be available in the future. This includes telephone, telegraph, fax, beeper, one-way cable TV, one-way satellite, dial-out terminal, on-line terminal, Internet, Intranet or Extranet, SmartPhone, 2-way beeper, 2-way cable TV, 2-way satellite, Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), Personal Computer (PC), express mail delivery, commercial express delivery and various systems of the type mentioned above. These systems allow the customer to respond electronically or by telephone or by fax or by any means, all of which are intended to allow the bank to receive the response information from the customer expeditiously and to enable the bank to act upon the customer""s instructions.
The Push Active Filter consists of two main components: the Push Active Filter Decision Component (PAFDC) and the Push Active Filter Communication Component (PAFCC). The PAFDC receives information input from all the accounts of every client subscribing to this service. Since the number of clients can be very large (millions), the invention provides ready partitioning across physical devices to enable practical implementation of a service with immediate notification capability. The PAFDC contains notification criterion values supplied by each client for use with bank specified conditions to initiate notices to those clients. The PAFDC creates the notices when the specified conditions occur and sends those notices to a corresponding PAFCC for transmission by any channels known by the PAFCC to be effective in reaching the client. By partitioning the clients into groups serviced by PAFDC-PAFCC pairs, scalability to large numbers of clients is assured. Each PAFCC, upon receipt of communications from a client, relays the communication to its corresponding PAFDC and other systems if applicable. Errors detected by the PAFCC are communicated to the PAFDC to cause proper corrective action. The PAFCC also corrects errors and takes corrective action.
The PAFDC periodically runs through the list of clients that it contains and determines if any of the clients should be notified, if any responses from previous notifications have been received, and if any transactions initiated by the PAFDC have been completed. The PAFDC receives account information at a rate that depends on the method of implementation. Three methods of implementation are envisioned, to be used in any combination: 1) account information is sent to the PAFDC on a client whenever a change in the client""s account occurs, 2) the PAFDC requests data from an account database when needed, 3) agents of the PAFDC, possessing knowledge of the notification criterion values specified by the clients and located at the relevant data sources, send data on a client to the PAFDC only when a notification condition occurs.
The PAFDC, upon determining that more than one message is to be sent or a message(s) is (are) to be sent and a prior message(s) has (have) been sent that is (are) still pending completion of the required action(s), makes an overall determination of the most appropriate action to take. It may decide that the present condition warrants no new notification(s) because the prior notice(s) is (are) still valid and adequate. It may decide that a new message is required to modify past instructions and/or add a new instruction(s). The preferred embodiment thus makes its determinations in two steps, first deciding on individual accounts, taking into consideration nuances specific to that type of account for that particular client in view of the client""s stated preferences. Then, second, it collects all notices generated by the first step and decides what notice(s) should be sent, if any, in light of messages previously sent, but whose intended activity has not been brought to conclusion, as well as considering the possible interaction between newly generated first step notices (e.g. advising to transfer an amount to one account, and to transfer an amount to a second account, when the sum of the two transfers would overdraw the source account).
Once the PAFDC decides what message(s) has (have) to be sent to the client, it generates the message(s) with a unique message identifier(s) that enables tracking the message(s) through the system until they are brought to conclusion. The message(s) is (are) sent to the corresponding PAFCC for transmission to the client either as soon as they are prepared, or in groups, or at completion of the entire client list, as determined by the requirements of the system at the time of designing the system (although building a system that adapts to changing conditions is possible). A unique client ID is also placed in each message to enable the PAFCC to determine who is to receive the message. The PAFCC contains the necessary information on each client to decide how to transmit the message.
A priority for the message is assigned by the PAFDC to guide the PAFCC in determining the order in which to send messages when limited by channel capacity. The PAFDC time stamps each message with a Stale Date to enable the client to determine whether a response could still be effective if sent. The PAFCC uses the Stale Date to initiate a clean up of messages not responded to within the allotted time. The PAFCC notifies the PAFDC when it has cleaned up a message by generating a response with that information content. Any response received after clean up is treated by the PAFDC in a manner similar to when it receives a client initiated message; it sends a message to the client informing the client that the response was received too late and no action taken. If at that time a new relevant notice is to be sent to the client, the two messages would be combined into one coherent message. Client initiated messages otherwise are reacted to by the PAFDC in a manner similar to receiving a response to a message sent to the client.
In order for the client to control which communication channels are used to transmit the messages, the PAFCC maintains a list of channels and priorities that are settable by the client (e.g. the client may be going on a trip and wants to eliminate messages to his home and designate his mobile unit as the top priority receiver). Because of the difference in message capacity, security and formatting across the range of devices, the PAFCC also maintains a list of device types and formats messages according to the actual capabilities of the target device(s). The PAFDC includes a numeric code with the message that designates a class of communication to the PAFCC that is associated with the account type to which the message pertains, making it simpler for the PAFCC to select the correct communication class. When the PAFDC wants to delete a prior message, such as when a superseding message must be sent prior to receiving a response to an earlier relevant message, a specific value of the numeric code informs the PAFCC to remove the prior message identified by the unique message identifier included in the message.
When a response to a message is received by the PAFDC from a client (via the PAFCC), It reads the response when it next gets to that client in its processing cycle. The PAFDC is able to recognize what message is being responded to by the unique message identifier included in the response that has been copied from the message into the response by the responding mechanism (the identifier copy is provided by the client if the client doesn""t possess an automated response mechanism). Client initiated messages have a unique code (e.g. zero) that enables recognizing it as client initiated. If the identifier copy is corrupted, predetermined rules direct the PAFDC how to handle the situation; either accepting the response as genuine with a message to that effect to the client, or requesting confirmation.
When a message has been responded to and the indicated transaction successfully completed or responded to, the PAFDC issues an acknowledgment that requires no response. However the PAFCC checks that the message is received and viewed. This information is kept in the PAFCC""s history file for audit purposes.
All messages that the PAFDC has sent are saved in two files. One file contains just active messages that have not been closed out. The other file archives all messages for future reference if needed to trace actions taken. The latter file can be used by customer service representatives while answering calls from clients, in order to see what activity has preceded the call.
When the bank is made aware of any situation requiring notification in accord with agreements made with the bank, the PAFDC is informed and a coordinated message is sent in a manner similar to the financially triggered messages described above. Thus the invention anticipates a broader service than traditionally handled by a bank in view of the comprehensive notification process provided by the invention. In fact, the processing of the invention is of a general nature that will be recognized as being applicable beyond just the banking industry. In particular, the applicability of the processing to such well known activities as workflow processing or bill presentment will be seen as benefiting from this new functionality.
When notification to a customer is required, it may require minimal time delay in sending the notice. In order to provide this immediacy of response economically, it may be necessary to interrupt the normal processing cycle described above, which may encompass millions of accounts, to service one or more urgent messages. The preferred embodiment therefore provides this capability by completing the processing of any client it is processing, and then issuing the urgent message and all messages processed up to the time of receiving the urgent message. The urgent message is combined with any other messages already processed for that client. The process then continues processing the remaining clients in its normal order, including the client for whom the urgent message was sent if it had not been processed prior to receiving the interruption.